Hey, It's Jade!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Over the past two years I have posted about the band Remedy Drive many, many times. I found their music at a time in my life when I really needed to hear something about hope and perseverance, and by golly... they were just what I needed! I found out on Monday that they were going to be in town on Wednesday evening, and I quickly texted my mom to see if she wanted to go...she did! I recently used their songs during my Shear Hope event and passed the CD along to my mom to listen to, and she also found the message of hope in their music! I was so excited. It's been nearly two years since that first time I saw them in concert (I always miss them when they come through, but have had the opportunity to interview them or talk to them at the station a few times since then... and I've listened to their CD over and over and over and over...).

The concert was at White's Chapel in Southlake. There was a pretty small turn out, but that it a pretty intimate experience. Despite the microphone not working at all through the entire first song (and David, the lead singer having NO idea it wasn't working, haha!), the show was great. Afterwards, Mom and I were headed out to the car and we ran into David. He recognized from Power FM and we stopped to chat for a bit. My mom got to tell him how much their music helped through the recent passing of my grandmother. He was very kind and humble, as usual. It was a great evening... except for the part where Callen (yes, Callen got to go to the concert too) screamed all the way home in the car. Haha!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Since the entries in this kids' devotional are dated, I plan to give this to my son (who will be 5 years old) as a Christmas present and start it with him on January 1st. We recently started homeschooling, and his first task every day is to read from his Children's Bible, which he loves! The first thing I noticed about this book was that the cover was adorable! I also like that the pages inside are colorful, but simple... and not overly childish. The wording is much the same way – not geared towards babies, but also would not be too confusing for young children with some help from mom or dad. It is written as if the LORD is speaking to the reader (ie. “As you begin each day, talk to Me about it.”). This collection of daily devotionals would be great for boys and girls of varying ages up to the teenage years. The short, concise reading is broken down into the scripture focus, a short blurb of text which expounds on the scripture or theme and then an additional verse or chapter is suggested to “read on your own.” Sarah Young has done a fine job providing some relevant, thought-provoking commentary on Scripture for kids, to keep them steady in their walk with God.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Ok, so lately it seems like everyone I know is under attack. Health issues, lay-offs, inability to find jobs, depression, miscommunication, loved ones passing away, car issues, house issues, LIFE ISSUES. It's crazy the amount of strife going on right now. I mean, I know we're all constantly, on a day-to-day (sometimes hour-to-hour) battle with everything, but it just seems like this year has had a record number of #Fails. (Sorry the twitterer in me is coming out.)

Honestly I don't feel like I'm in any position to heap out brilliant advice or even cheerful words of encouragement, 'cause I (along with my family) am right there in the trenches as well. I feel beat down, worn out, run over and all that. I've cried. I've screamed. I've punched my pillows. I've accused God of not hearing us!

This past Sunday, Pastor Joe talked about how when things are going badly, we often say "Just pray the devil leaves me alone." But truth is, the devil is NOT gonna leave us alone 'cause we're down. He's not gonna leave us alone just 'cause we've asked nicely. It's these moments he's gonna throw more and more at us, because he knows we're weak. Things often have to get so much worse before they can get better. I don't know why God doesn't just step in and "fix things." Wouldn't that be rad? Why do we have to go through so many trials and tribulations of just every day life. We know we're here for more than working for the man, paying the bills, driving a nice car, etc. So why do we have to go through all these hoops? The devil isn't as powerful as our Father, but he is certainly a hard worker, and he knows us... he knows just what it takes to get us down. He knows to hit our bank accounts, he knows how to cause tension between spouses and friends, he knows how to get us and he'll do everything in his power to make it count.

But, the last few days every time I hear or read a new prayer request, or a cry out for help, or a "OMGosh, why is life so sucky??!?!" I've had a picture pop up in my mind. The devil is strong, but not as strong as God. The devil is smart, but not as smart as God. The picture that has popped into my head is this one...

No matter what your stance on the band P.O.D. is, this CD cover still has to be a little bit of fresh air in your otherwise horrendous day. Ok, at least it is in mine. The good guys will win in the end. Light shall prevail. The devil cannot be the victor. God will snuff the punk!

So, I dunno what you're dealing with right now (well, I do know what a lot of you are dealing with right now), but God has it in His hands, He is Lord over all... and even though it does suck right now, there's a greater outcome. We just have to continue to be strong, continue to be faithful and remember that God is bigger!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I have met Anne a handful of times, and we have many mutual friends... I also enjoy following and reading Anne's blog and twitter posts, as she is a great writer. The topic of this book is definitely interesting. Why is it that the church is the very place we feel least comfortable being honest and open? We feel the need to paste on a happy face and pretend that everything is great around fellow Christians, when it obviously isn't. This book is Anne's contribution in breaking down that misconception, in letting us know that it's OK to be broken. We all are in some way. Anne tells her story, offers scripture, art and poetry throughout the beautifully put together book... but there is no easy answer to fix your heart. Don't expect a last chapter or paragraph tying it all up and handing you the key to healing or success. It's a personal, spiritual journey, and Anne allows you to take the reins and go from here. Anne is very open about her failures, strongholds and brokenness... we should all have an opportunity to be as honest and real.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My Grandma Linda passed away early Saturday morning. She had been declining in health for a long time due to a rare brain disease called Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy (OPCA). Basically, from what I understand, an important part of your brain starts shrinking and you lose the ability to control your own body (coordination, swallowing correctly, etc). Though the disease had been taking it's toll on her for a while, it just suddenly took off over the past two weeks and caused her to be completely bedridden and her body just began shutting down. She passed away peacefully, thankfully.

Me & GML

The hardest part to think about is that she was so young. 65. But that disease stole so many precious years from her, made her body so much older than she really was. She loved chocolate, going to the casino, watching Ultimate Fighting and Bull Riding, she was one of the first grandmothers I knew to have a Facebook page (and navigate Twitter to keep up with me and all her favorite celebrities!). This is a woman who raised a set of twins (one being my mother) starting at the age of 18, and two other kids not long after that. She worked for General Dynamics in the 80's-90's. She and my mom were basically Lucy & Ethel, always getting their hands in something... cake decorating, owning a nail salon, selling antiques, working in the home health industry... so many different things! She was really special, and will be so greatly missed. But we are all glad to know that she is no longer trapped in her failing body, she is free!

Preston started soccer last week. It's indoor pre-k soccer, and it's hilarious. Our practice days are Monday, but the first week the Monday was a holiday (Labor Day) so we were supposed to practice outside on Tuesday. Then, it rained all day Tuesday, so we went for a 30-minute meeting/practice. Basically, they spent 20 minutes "warming up" and 2 minutes kicking the ball. No rules, no instructions, no 'object of the game' type lesson. Then, Saturday was their first game. Oh my! Again... it was hilarious! The kids were everywhere, going the wrong way, using their hands... it was madness. But adorable, sweet madness.

Preston's uniform was way too big, and he was obsessively afraid that his shorts would fall off. He spent pretty much the entire game holding onto his shorts. He wasn't really able to keep up with where the ball was at any particular time, but mostly just ran (hopped, danced, wandered) around behind everyone else. At one point, he ran off the court and said he was "tired of this game." Oh dear.

This week's practice was better, so hopefully Preston does less dancing and holding of the shorts, but... oh well, at least the parents all get a good laugh out of all our kids running around like banshees!

Friday, September 10, 2010

My kiddo is 6-months old today. SIX MONTHS, ya'll. That means he's been a part of this family for 15 months already. Amazing. He's amazing.

It's definitely been quite a wild ride since Callen arrived in our lives. I became a stay-at-home-mom, for one. Which means I have been with this kid pretty much 24/7, unlike Preston... who I handed over to the grandmas every day starting at 2 months old. It's been wonderful, exhausting, challenging... but mostly wonderful. I am so thankful to be able to be here with my boys.

Callen's latest milestones...

- Rolling over front to back and back to front... basically rolling across the entire length of the floor if I let him.

- Pushes up on his arms, and occasionally gets up on his knees... definitely getting ready to crawl.

- Can kind of sit on his own, for a few seconds anyway if he's trying.

- Eating some solids. He's tried carrots, avocados and bananas.

- Blabbering some sounds that seem to be on purpose, like "ma ma ma ma" and "buh buh buh buh."

- He can get around the kitchen in his walker. He is starting to go after Preston's school stuff already, uh oh.

- Grabbing EVERYTHING that gets anywhere near him. We have to be on constant watch, of course.

- Will have his weight & length next week, he has a 6-mth check up on Tuesday. [EDIT: He is 16.8lbs & 27.75 " long. The doc detected a slight murmer. which they never heard before. She said it's probably because it's closing up so the noise it makes is louder than when it was slightly larger. So... we'll have that checked out again at his 9-mth appointment.]

Playing in Preston's bed.

So sweet together!

Preston and Callen still get along well, and really enjoy each other. Preston is a great help in occupying the baby so I can get some things done around the house (or go potty!). Callen has been pretty cooperative this first week of Preston's homeschool. He's either slept or played happily in his walker near us while we work at the table.

Callen walkering around.

The boys in the fort built by Daddy!

I am glad the summer is coming to an end, so hopefully we can get outdoors more often. I think that will be good for all of us.

Had a little photo shoot with Callen in his floor this morning...

A little video (he doesn't spew in this one, however he does choke himself up, geez!)...

And for the record, I do feel guilty for not giving Callen a half-birthday party like we did for Preston when he turned 6 months old, but I guess what they say about what you do for your first-born vs. subsequent children is true. Sorry, Cal. =(

P.S. In honor of his special day, the kid barely stopped crying/fussing allll day. He also hasn't pooped allll day. Pretty sure those two are related, poor thing,

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Well, it's official... I have a kindergartner! Preston is only 4 (and 3/4's!), but ya'll know the boy is a genius, so I have no reason to explain. Haha! Since he picked up reading so quickly this summer, and he has known most of the pre-k stuff, like letters, numbers, shapes, colors and whatnot, since he was two, I decided to go ahead and start him out in K this year. I wanted to wait until the day after Labor Day to start 'cause... well, it's homeschool, and I got to choose! He was so excited as we've been counting down the days. Yesterday morning as he was eating breakfast, and saw that it was only one day till school started, he exlaimed "I wish it was nighttime so I could go to bed, then wake up and DO SCHOOL!"

This morning Callen woke me about 8:30, so I got up and fed him and he fell back asleep. I woke up Preston, who suddenly wasn't quite as interested in getting up for school... but he got up and had breakfast with me.

As he ate, I showed him the homeschool area of our kitchen which now houses the work boxes, books and supplies. I also explained how it was going to work, and what we were going to do. He quickly got excited about school again as I talked about it and showed him the stuff I had previously kept secret from him.

Our first subject is Bible. He read the first page of his little Bible and I read the first part of a 10 Commandment book for children.

Next we did a little art project where he colored, cut out and put together an Alphabet plane that has capital and lower case letters. That went up on the wall so that as he's practicing writing, he can refer to it if he gets stuck on a letter. Plus, it's just cute. (Yep, if you're homeschooled it's ok to do schoolwork in your underwear... hahaha!)

The third subject was Social Studies were we talked about how we live on Earth, in America, in the USA, in Texas, in Grand Prairie and at our address. He drew a picture of our house and wrote out our address.

Callen woke up at this point, so I had to feed him again and while I was doing that, Preston joined us on the couch and read a book to us. It was a Dora The Expolorer phonics book focusing on silent letters.

Fifth subject was writing, so I had him write out his capital and lower case letters. He's a little rusty on those. He doesn't like just sitting there writing them out, so we'll do some other stuff that's hopefully more exciting to him in the future. But I did this to kind of see where we were at as far as writing them all out. Definitely need work!

After that, we went out for a few errands - the Post Office and to Mardel to get some of his school stuff laminated (this week at Mardel, you can get 25-feet of stuff laminated for FREE!). We got back and had lunch, then finished up with our last subject: Math! I really just had him write out his numbers. I figured that was a good place to start, and he had already had a pretty full day for a first day. Thankfully Callen played nicely in his walker next to us in the kitchen while we focused.

This is our 'homeschool' corner of the kitchen. It's got his work boxes (one for each subject - Bible, Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies/Science & Other, which is art/music/Spanish/sign language) and the extra books and supplies. He's pointing to his chart, he gets to fill in the chart as he finished each subject and when it's full, he's done for the day! Each subject/activity really takes no more than 10 minutes or so (sometimes less, rarely more - he doesn't really need more than that at this point).

I'm thankful that I learned about the 'work box system' (just last week, thanks MRHSG!) because it finally gave me some direction on how to go about this whole thing. Up until then I wasn't really sure what kind of structure we would have or how I would go about planning what we would do each day. I'm not using any particular curriculum right now, just some work books and lessons I've found online and random stuff I'm coming up with, along with a couple of books I got recently on 'what your Kindergartner should know' to make sure I'm covering the basics. But the work boxes have given me motivation and I think they'll help to keep Preston focused on what we're doing each day. I know he won't always wake up super excited about school, but hopefully this system will help to keep us going and not fizzle out or get too lazy.

Monday, September 6, 2010

September, despite it's cooler temperatures, has brought with it quite a bit of excitement. However it's been mostly the negative kind of excitement. It's less than one week into the month and already our house has flooded, our expensive vacuum and desktop computer have stopped working, we received sad news about some friends of ours, our bank account has dipped dangerously low and my grandma is in the midst of passing away.

On the last day of August, my mom called to say that my Grandma Linda, who has OPCA - a rare brain disease - is slipping away. She has been unwell for a while, but more recently has been in very obvious decline. And these past few days have been worse and worse. There was a point yesterday evening that it looked like the end, but she is continuing to hold on, not quite ready to let go. But it really doesn't look like she'll be with us much longer. And I think most of us, though as hard as it is, are ready for her to go because we know how miserable she is trapped in her own body and having to experience so much pain constantly.

On September 2nd, after not sleeping well again for the second night in a row, I was up feeding Callen. I suddenly heard a noise that sounded like the washing machine had turned on. I finished up with Callen, laid him down and walked into the living room to see a stream of water pouring out of our laundry room into the living room. I grabbed some towels, and opened the laundry room door to find a couple of inches of water pooled inside and spreading. There was also water spraying everywhere! I was still in the waking stages and it took me a second to realize what was even happening... the water was spraying straight up out of the back of the washer, hitting the shelf above and ricocheting down ... it was difficult to decipher where the water was coming from at all. And it was like movies with the water spraying me in the face and what not. I managed to grab a shirt, put it over the hose that was busted and spraying the water so that I could get to the faucet to turn off the water. Just praying the whole time that it would be as simple as turning the handle.. and thankfully it was. However, once I got it stopped and stepped out of the laundry room, the water was EVERYWHERE already. The entire living room had an inch of standing water, it was quickly moving into the hall towards the bedrooms and into the kitchen. I tried to call Michael, who was about to leave work, but it went straight to voicemail. I couldn't get him, Callen was screaming in his crib, Preston was asking what was going on and trying to help soothe Callen. It was just so ridiculous! I was completely drenched, standing in water in my living room, trying to find all the possible towels and blankets and comforters in the whole house to use to soak up the water. When Michael finally arrived, I kinda freaked out on him "Get in here!!!" He went next door and borrowed a wet-vac and we were able to suck out most of the water. We got everything cleaned up as best we could. I am soooo thankful that I was up and heard it when I did, 'cause if it had been any longer that it went without stopping, it could have really ruined a lot of stuff. I'm also super thankful that we have tile everywhere except the bedrooms, because it would have meant completely ruined carpet. It did get into and under Preston's laminate floor unfortunately, and a good chunk of that is ruined. I'm not sure what we're going to do about that. Right now I just have a rug over the entrance to his room so that you don't stub your toe on the warped boards.

After we got everything dried out, we went to shampoo my beloved cow run with our expensive Kirby vacuum/carpet shampooer... and the dang thing would not work. Well, it worked, then we tried to put on the shampoo accessories, took us a while to remember how and then when we got it on right... it just wouldn't even turn on. Just up and decided to quit. Thankfully, after just letting it rest a full day and putting the vacuum parts back on it, it worked. We haven't tried to shampoo again, so we'll see. But at least it's not completely dead like we thought at first.

And, currently our desktop computer is on the brink of death. The fan isn't working so before it can even finish booting up, it overheats and shuts down. I know this isn't the end of the world because we have the laptop, but it's a nuisance just the same. And we don't have the money for repairs or a new one right now. So it's just one more thing to add to the list of crappppp.

There are good things that have happened over the past few days, I should definitely take note of some of those. Callen is about to be 6-months old and he's exploring new foods (carrots, avacado and bananas so far), he's rolling and scooting all over the place and doing his best to make words (mamamama, buh buh buh buh are the clearest and most frequent). Preston is excited to start homeschool Kindergarten tomorrow and I feel like I am (mostly) prepared for it. We are using the workbox system that I learned about last week at the Mom's Support Meeting. It's more for me to make sure I stay motivated and have an idea of what we're doing everyday, but I think it will be great for Preston to work with as well. He also starts soccer tomorrow evening!

Anyway, it's definitely been a trying week and is sure to continue as my Grandma continues to slip away. Prayers are always welcome, especially for my Grandma, so that she doesn't have to be in pain and that she doesn't have to be scared to leave us. For the family, that we can find peace in letting her go.